Method, apparatus and controller for managing memories

Abstract

A method, an apparatus and a controller for managing memories are provided. In the present invention, a data accessing format of each of the memories is adjusted such that the accessing units for each data accessing operation are unified. A mapping table is then established for recording the adjusted data accessing format. When a data accessing command is received from a host, the mapping table is inquired so as to execute the data accessing command. Accordingly, incompatibility of hardware structures can be resolved, and management of different types of flash memory can be achieved.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application serial no. 97118235, filed on May 16, 2008. The entirety of the above-mentioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to a method and a system for managing memories. More particularly, the present invention relates to a memory, an apparatus and a controller for managing multiple kinds of memories.[0004]2. Description of Related Art[0005]With a quick development of digital camera, cell phone and MP3, demand of storage media by customers is increased greatly. Since a flash memory has the advantages of non-volatile, energy saving, small size and none mechanical structure etc., it is suitable to function as a built-in memory for portable products, and especially for portable battery-powered products such as laptop computers ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008]Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method for managing memories, in which by setting all the memories into a compatible format, different types of flash memory can be mixingly managed.

[0009]The present invention is directed to a system for managing memories, in which an independent controller is used to manage data accessing operations of the memories, so that incompatibility of hardware structures can be resolved.

[0032]In an embodiment of the present invention, the memory management module further expands the memories with relatively small accessing units to be compatible with the memory with a relatively large accessing unit based on a merging approach.

[0036]In the present invention, a single controller is applied to control different types of flash memory or block address memory. By setting all the memories into a compatible format, and establishing a mapping table in the controller to record information such as data accessing formats, command sets and logical address ranges of the memories, incompatibility of the hardware structure can be resolved and different types of flash memory can be simultaneously managed.

Problems solved by technology

However, since hardware structures of the flash memories fabricated by different manufacturers are different, for example, number of pages, number of blocks, number of sectors, error checking and correction (ECC) redundancy area sizes, NOPs, R / W timings and special commands of the flash memories are different, a controller of each flash memory module is limited to connect the flash memories with the same capacity and the same type, so that capacities thereof are limited.

For example, if 520 MB memory spaces are required, only two 512 MB flash memories or three 256 MB flash memories can be used, and therefore cost and capacities of the flash memories are wasted.

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